I Married My Ex's Billionaire Father-Chapter 284: Honey

Levi sat paralyzed for a split second, his fingers white-knuckled around the steering wheel. He watched, wide-eyed and breathless, as the heavy door of the lead SUV swung open. A man who looked more like a mountain than a human stepped out, dressed in a tailored charcoal suit that strained against his massive frame. The man’s face was a map of scars and indifference, the quintessential image of high-end muscle.

Levi’s instincts screamed at him to move. He slammed the gear into reverse, the engine of his car roaring as he prepared to pull a desperate U-turn and flee back the way he had come. But the mechanical whine of his car was answered by the screech of tires behind him. A second SUV, identical to the first, had appeared as if from thin air, boxing him in with surgical precision.

The giant in the suit didn’t run; he didn’t have to. He walked with a slow, predatory confidence toward Levi’s window. When he reached the door, he didn’t knock. He simply adjusted his jacket, allowing the sunlight to glint off the cold, black steel of a handgun tucked into a shoulder holster. He looked at Levi through the glass, his expression suggesting that he would find shooting Levi just as boring as a morning commute.

Levi exhaled a long, shaky sigh of resignation. He leaned back against his headrest for a moment, the weight of the morning pressing down on him. He realized he was trapped in a brazen act of daylight kidnapping on a public street, yet no one was coming to help. He stepped out of his car, the cool air hitting his face, and allowed the giant to usher him toward the tinted sanctuary of the lead SUV.

The interior of the vehicle was a sensory overload of expensive leather, chilled air, and the cloyingly sweet scent of jasmine perfume.

"I don’t have time to play these games with you," Levi gritted his teeth, his face rigid and his gaze fixed straight ahead at the back of the driver’s head. His heart was still racing, not out of fear for his life, but out of the agonizing knowledge that every minute spent in this car was a minute he wasn’t protecting Lyse.

"Can’t I drop in and visit with my brother-in-law?" the woman sitting beside him purred. Her voice was like honey dripping over broken glass. Smooth, sweet, but dangerous. "Won’t you even look at me, Levi? It’s been ages since we had a proper family reunion."

Levi felt a slender, manicured hand reach out, the fingers trailing a slow, unwanted caress down his jawline. He jerked his head away, his skin crawling. "What are you here for, Honey?" he demanded, catching her hand by the wrist and firmly pushing it away.

With a sharp, indignant huff, she glared at him and straightened her posture, smoothing out the fabric of her designer silk dress. "You always were a cold one," she muttered. Then, her eyes narrowed, searching his face with a sudden, piercing intensity. "Did you kill my husband?" 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"Ex-husband," Levi corrected her automatically, his voice flat.

"First of all, we never filed for divorce," she cried out, her voice rising into a pitch of dramatic grief. She pressed a hand to her chest, her eyes welled with practiced tears. "That is the father of my child, the love of my life! How could you speak of him so clinically?"

"Spare me the hysterics, Honey," Levi scoffed, using the name she had gone by in the streets. "Where was all this grand emotion during Brett’s trial?

Honey was a woman of legendary notoriety. A former prostitute who had climbed the ladder of the underworld to become a formidable pimp and fixer, she was as sharp as a razor and twice as likely to draw blood. She and Brett had entered into a marriage of convenience and chaos after she had become pregnant, a union Levi had always viewed with a mix of disgust and distant curiosity. He had spent years keeping her at arm’s length, knowing that any contact with Honey usually resulted in a stain that was hard to wash off. Her sudden appearance now, using paramilitary tactics to intercept him, sent danger signals to his head.

"Well, it’s bad for business to be seen visiting a man in a cage," Honey finally broke out angrily, her mask of grief slipping to reveal the ruthless pragmatist beneath. "With Brett gone, my protection is gone. People remember the things I did to get to the top, Levi. Now that the big wolf is dead, the sharks are starting to circle my waters. I’m tired. I need to retire. I need to take my child and disappear where the sun stays out all year."

She paused, her chest heaving. "But in order to do that, I need money. A lot of it."

Levi raised an eyebrow, his expression one of bored skepticism. "And you think I’m your bank? You know my father’s estate is tied up in a dozen legal battles."

Honey waved off his concern with a flick of her wrist. "I don’t need your money, Levi. Brett has plenty. He was a paranoid bastard; he had stashes all over the city, in accounts and deposit boxes that even the IRS couldn’t sniff out. I just need to find a bunch of keys. Small, brass keys for a specific set of deposit boxes."

Levi looked at her, his expression turning from irritation to utter incredulity. "Then why am I here? Why did you have your goons stop me on the road and force me into your car at gunpoint? To ask if I stole my brother’s property?"

"I can’t find them," she said squarely, her eyes searching his for any sign of a lie. "I’ve turned his penthouse upside down. I’ve leaned on his associates. Nothing. Did you take them? Did you clear out his lockers the moment the police moved in?"

"You’re insane," Levi replied, his voice dripping with disbelief. "I haven’t spoken to Brett in months, and the last thing I want is a collection of keys to his dirty laundry. I have my own life to worry about, a life you are currently interrupting."

"We are talking about my survival here, Levi!" Honey snapped back, her expression one of pained, raw honesty. "I have a child to think about. I just needed to eliminate suspects. You were the most logical person to have found them if the police didn’t."

She slumped back into the leather seat, her manicured nails tapping a restless rhythm on her designer handbag. "Who should I ask next?" she mused softly, her voice trailing off as she looked out the tinted window. "Who else was close enough to Brett to know where he kept his heart?"

Levi felt a surge of irritation. He wanted to be out of this car and back on his way to Lyse. If he could distract Honey and point her in another direction, maybe he could get his freedom back.

"Maybe you should go to Brandon," Levi muttered, his voice laced with bitterness. "He has become quite the Machiavelli lately. He’s been lurking in the shadows, playing all sides against the middle. If anyone has the keys to Brett’s kingdom, it’s the person who’s been trying to build one of his own."

He felt a dark sense of satisfaction at the suggestion. It would save him a lot of heartache if Honey turned her formidable, terrifying attention toward Brandon. If Brandon was indeed the thief, and Levi wouldn’t put it past him Honey would deal with him the same way she dealt with prostitutes who tried to skim off the top. Nobody would find his remains.

"Brandon," Honey rolled the name on her lips, her eyes lighting up with a predatory spark. "Your son? The one whose girlfriend you stole?"

At Levi’s hot, sudden glare, she raised her hands in a mocking gesture of defense.

"Forgive me, darling. I know that love cares not for what people consider taboo or scandalous. It’s all very Shakespearean, isn’t it? The father, the son, and the woman between them."

"We’re done here, Honey," Levi said, his voice a low, dangerous warning.

"Well, thank you for your help, Levi. You’ve given me a new trail to sniff," Honey said, her mood shifting back to its usual flirtatious bravado. As the car slowed to a halt back near where they had intercepted him, she puckered her lips and leaned forward. "Do I get a kiss bye-bye for old times’ sake?"

Levi stared at her with such cold, unyielding silence that the air in the car seemed to drop ten degrees.

Honey opened her eyes and looked at him, a small, knowing smile playing on her lips. "I am woman enough to not force a man who clearly has his heart elsewhere. Goodbye, Levi. Give my love to the little dressmaker."

The heavy door was pulled open from the outside by the giant, Sergei, who held it with a stiff, formal bow. Levi stepped out onto the pavement, the sound of the SUV’s door closing behind him like a final gavel strike. He stood on the curb, watching as the two black vehicles pulled away into the morning traffic.

Inside the car, Honey watched Levi’s shrinking figure in the rearview mirror. The playful look vanished from her face, replaced by a cold, calculating mask.

"Sergei," she said, her voice dropping into a business-like growl. "Find me everything you can on Brandon Marlowe. I want his bank statements, his recent sightings, and his associates. And Sergei?"

"Yes, Madame?"

"I want everything you can find on his girlfriend... or ex-girlfriend. Lyse Spade. If Brandon has those keys, he’s hiding them near something he loves. And I want to know exactly what that is."